Men’s Health Week is celebrated each year as the week leading up to and including Father’s Day. This year, Men’s Health Week runs from June 11th–17th. It is observed as part of the larger Men’s Health Month, which is celebrated during the month of June with screenings, health fairs, media appearances, and other health education and outreach activities.

Patients at a high risk for a second stroke who received intensive medical treatment had fewer strokes and deaths than patients who received a brain stent in addition to the medical treatment, a large nationwide clinical trial has shown. The investigators published the results in the online first edition of the New England Journal of Medicine [1]. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the trial. The medical regimen included daily blood-thinning medications and aggressive control of blood pressure and cholesterol.

New enrollment in the study was stopped in April because early data showed significantly more strokes and deaths occurred among the stented patients at the 30-day mark compared to the group who received the medical management alone.

It is old news that aspirin is good for your heart. But a recent report published in The Lancet, the premiere medical journal in the United Kingdom, claims that at least 75mg of aspirin every day can also reduce the risk of developing many different types of cancers.

There is already evidence that taking aspirin every day for five years can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Moreover, aspirin has been shown to reduce the incidence and/or growth rate of a number of cancers in animal models. To determine if aspirin can reduce the risk of other cancers in humans, Peter Rothwell and colleagues at the University of Oxford undertook a meta-analysis of eight randomized trials originally performed to study aspirin’s role in preventing vascular events. This study was independent of any commercial interests.